The Official Fuel Prices Thread

This is a discussion on The Official Fuel Prices Thread within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; Originally Posted by mahadev_kc
How does this work? Is it not the IOC/HPC etc.. knows how much stock one petrol ...

How does this work? Is it not the IOC/HPC etc.. knows how much stock one petrol bunk has and accordingly they adjust the price the petrol bunk has to pay or receive from IOC/HPC?

Can you kindly educate us..

Sure, why not?
First thing, the OMCs are not bothered about the Stocks available with their own dealerships. In fact, they intend to sell more despite of the price factor through the dealers just to gain or improve their own market share.

The fuel prices are supposed to get revised every fortnight. And the revision is based on the average International Crude prices w.r.t. the Exchange rate.

@Dr Vikas, why would the dealers not want to go with daily revisions ?

See, Dealers are bound to follow the Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) set by the OMCs.
Accordingly, in case of a revision, the rates are supposed to be changed by midnight itself at the bunks serving for 24 hrs and before the sales start the next day at other bunks. Also the rates differ for every bunk based on the category, location etc. Many a times, the message is not circulated in time & one has to keep on waiting for it.

At the Automated bunks, it's easy for the system to change the prices, maintain the records of stock/ sales etc. whereas it's not practically feasible to follow all the things manually for the other bunks.

Other important reason is related to the maintenance of accounts, Profit & loss records etc. for the routine audits.. Being a high transaction & comparatively low margin business & considering the instability therein, nobody would like always to stay and work under pressure/ stress, I guess..

Till then, let's see, how it works at the select places initially & how the general public responds too..

Dear Friends, looks like the call given by the central petrol bunks association (CIPD) is being implemented by the members in eight states starting May 14th 2017. So, it means that all the petrol bunks (provided all of these bunks adhere) of these states would take off on Sundays and will be having a single salesman to cater only on emergencies. Of course, this is highly questionable given that the dealers in Karnataka have allegiance to more than two different associations. So, all of North Karnataka bunks and Central Karnataka bunks might remain open whereas bunks around Mysore, Bangalore, Hassan, Coorg might shut their operations on Sunday. Let us wait and watch.
More on this link https://goo.gl/5d2PgV

So, all of North Karnataka bunks and Central Karnataka bunks might remain open whereas bunks around Mysore, Bangalore, Hassan, Coorg might shut their operations on Sunday. Let us wait and watch.
More on this link https://goo.gl/5d2PgV

North Karnataka region likely to follow the same rule (Shut down on Sunday). While the difference in opinion regarding this daily price revision has been there ever since it's announcement.

More realistic reasons like Delay in Price Change, Lack of Fully Automated Outlets, Product Loss during transportation, etc are various reasons why the Dealers opposing this new rule.

North Karnataka region likely to follow the same rule (Shut down on Sunday). While the difference in opinion regarding this daily price revision has been there ever since it's announcement.

More realistic reasons like Delay in Price Change, Lack of Fully Automated Outlets, Product Loss during transportation, etc are various reasons why the Dealers opposing this new rule.

Hi Carguy, the North Karnataka and the Central Karnataka regions have already given a statement that they will not follow this as their allegiance is to another association, and they have not supported this call. While it might be anybody's guess what will happen post May 14, it might be too soon for us to know for now.

Dealers are not opposing the dynamic pricing per se but final implementation is based on lack of "total automation" in all the outlets. In fact, as of today, almost 85% outlets have been automatized across India with various levels of efficiency a. Specifically to those five cities where they are first trying the pilot are having total automation otherwise this exercise will be futile. For customers, this will be a blessing as all automatized outlets will have better accountability which will lead to lower conflict with the staff on willful deviation as sufficient proofs will be available.

For dealers/owners, this may actually help their case because then the loss will be significantly small due to daily adjustments of price which means they will stop complaining, and they will not shut operations with no-stock boards. Even during price rise, there will not be any closure of outlets due to the same logic. This in turn will help the consumer with no long queues during price hike and closed bunks during any drops.

It is going to be a tight call as there is always a trust deficit among the dealers and the company so it is hard to say what actually will transpire after this new pricing method gets implemented. There is of course no relativity between product loss and dynamic pricing and this still will continue to happen as long as the transporters are not reigned in for accountability.

In fact, this ploy of holiday must be a way for the dealers to get the attention of the concerned to address their long-pending needs and how far this will be successfully implemented across will have to be seen. Cheers

If bunks are going to be shut on Sunday, I am getting out my old 25 L Jerry cans. I remember touring in Ambys and Fiats in the 80's with a couple of cans as fuel bunks were few and far away. Thankfully all my cars have big boots, Small tanks though. Can hardly get a range of 600-700 kms on a full tank. Is there any way to fit auxiliary tanks on current cars?

Looks like the govt is letting this play out. But I do hear noises emanating, that this is a no-go, and the state may get tough if the dealers go much further. Let us watch and wait. I cannot even drive from Kanpur to Gurugram on a single tank of fuel in my City. It was on in my older Civic.

Heard that while the rupee may harden by a rupee or two, Brent may hit $72-74. So we are in for a harder time. The rupee hardening will not compensate out the Brent hardening.

72-74? Thats a long way from the current 52 odd. Any specific reason you think it would jump up so much? Not many actually predict it to cross 60 in the near term. Last week has seen it go tumbling from 55-56 to current 51.96 due to the increasing US stockpiles offsetting the OPEC cuts. Of course, there is also a talk of extending the OPEC production cuts for another 6 months or so, which may push it up little but.